INFORMETRIC DISTRIBUTIONS - A TUTORIAL REVIEW

The notions ''informetric'' or ''bibliometric'' distributions refer to a set of mathematical representations and formulations of regularitie s observed in bibliographies, lists of authors, citation lists, and si milar data. In this article we review some of these functions (e.g., L otka's, Leimkuhler's, and Bradford's formulations), and we show that t hese regularities occur not only in library or information science set tings, but almost everywhere in the sciences, social sciences, and hum anities. As an example we analyse song texts of the singer/songwriter Thomas Dolby and conclude that word usage in Dolby's Astronauts and He retics perfectly fits a Leimkuhler function. Moreover, Lotka's inverse square law yields an acceptable description of the corresponding freq uency distribution.